Recently, an electrical car in which an electrical motor (also referred to as “a motor” hereinafter) is used as a drive source has been put to practical use from a standpoint of a reduction in dioxide emission and an efficient use of energy, for example. The motor applies electrical energy stored in a storage battery (also referred to as “a battery” hereinafter) as a power source. An energy concentration in the battery for the electrical car is small compared to gasoline. Accordingly, a cruising distance of the electrical car is short, approximately 100 to 200 km. The cruising distance is further reduced in accordance with a power consumption due to electrical load of an air-conditioning machine (an air conditioner) provided in the electrical car. Considered as one of approaches to solve the above problem is a method of mounting a heat storage made up of a heat storage material in the air conditioner. If the heat storage is heated in advance, air heating by using the heat storage can be achieved. In contrast, if the heat storage is cooled in advance, the heat storage material functions as a cooling storage material, thereby enabling air cooling by using the heat storage. Accordingly, the electrical power consumed in the air conditioner during traveling can be reduced.
According to a technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-20597 (Patent Document 1), when regeneration power exceeding a battery capacity is generated, the cooling storage material is cooled by using the regeneration power. Accordingly, the electrical power which cannot be stored in the battery is effectively used. The electrical power consumed during the traveling is therefore reduced. This technique is effective in an electrical hybrid car applying both a motor and an engine as a power source. The reason is that in the electrical hybrid car, the battery is charged by generating the electrical power using the engine during the traveling, thus a space for enabling the storage of the regeneration power is not always secured in the battery.
In the meanwhile, the technique described above is not appropriate for the electrical car. The reason is that electrical power larger than regeneration power is already taken out from a battery of the electrical car for the electrical car traveling before the regeneration power is generated. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-139026 (Patent Document 2) discloses a technique relating to the electrical car. According to this technique, a setting of increasing the power consumption in electrical equipment such as an air conditioner and an audio device can be suppressed so that the electrical power necessary for the electrical car to travel to a charging facility is secured. Accordingly, the power consumption is suppressed when the electrical power for traveling to the charging facility comes close to becoming insufficient.